Lotus is still investigating. Given their budget, that probably means one of the technicians is watching the video over and over on a smartphone using the local Starbucks’ wi-fi. Grosjean didn’t seem to think anything had broken in the post-race interviews so I am guessing he just lost control.
Not surprising that a slight loss of control on that corner saw it snap sideways.
The cars around there seemed canted over to a ridiculous degree so I can’t begin to imagine the pent-up cornering forces waiting to be unleashed.
Watching it in slow motion I had to wince as the back end hit the barrier and whipped the front around with a heck of thump. I felt sore just watching.
Yeah, it looked about as ugly as a non-head-on, non-rollover accident can. I think he probably just ran an inch or two wide trying to get under the wing of the McLaren in front, and got on the marbles. At that speed, with the slippery track surface in Sochi, I would have been shocked if he was able to recover it.
Yea, they were talking about marbles off-line, but it didn’t look like he was off-line at all. Though -as Novelty Bobble said above- the car was so wound-up with cornering forces there, it probably didn’t take much (maybe only 1 marble) to get a tire to lose some of its bite.
I was sad for Bottas, but I was happy that Vettel could actually still *see *one of the silver cars as he crossed the finish line. That hasn’t happened much this season.
Well, that was because Hamilton had a wing failure and the team told him to slow down at the end. But yeah, Bottas got screwed. Especially so since he and Kimi are fighting for fourth place in the points standings.
I’ve not researched it at all, but in the broadcast it seemed to be a DRS issue. I thought the team told him not to use the DRS, not slow in-general.
Either way, good to see it clos(ER) this weekend 
Also, glad (and a wee bit surprised) that Sainz was A-okay after his crash in practice. That was quite a hit!
No, they were telling him not to use DRS because the whole wing was fucked. At least that’s what the NBCSN commentary team was saying.
Yeah, I don’t think he would have hit the barrier, but he would have gone pretty wide, I’m not sure if he would have been able to keep ahead or if Bottas would have been able to get right back by underneath.
Funny how those TV guys are so quick to suggest something had to have broken to cause these accidents. 
The TV guys got that wrong, too, at first. The Australian guy misheard and thought the pits were telling him to use it. It was clear on the radio they were telling him NOT to use DRS.
Just finished watching the highlights, so not sure what it was like in real time, but seemed an entertaining race, with battles all the way through the field. Director was pretty crap as usual, cutting to the leaders when someone was about to overtake in midfield.
It was amusing that at the end, Rosberg could have spoiled the Hamilton party by letting Vettel by, and for a while it seemed like he was considering it, but of course that would risk his own championship placing, so it was never more than a bit of commentator’s whimsy.
Well done to Hamilton who has clearly had the best package this season, as Rosberg’s unfortunate slip demonstrated. Does he deserve to be a triple champ? Yes, I think so. Is he as good as Jim Clark/Jackie Stewart/Ayrton Senna? Probably not if I’m honest but comparing across eras is virtually impossible. When people moan about Mercedes having a dominant car they sometimes forget that other great champions (like Clark, Senna, Prost, Schumacher) also won several titles with dominant teams at the time.
I think Hamilton would live comfortably with the best of the best across the eras. As said, there are too many variable to make a solid comparison but he is one of the few to win multiple championships with different manufacturers. In his very first season he was competitive (if not better) than Alonso and has won in every season since, in some truly doggish cars.
As ever, you make some good points.
I could have sworn Clark was a triple-champ, but I see my memory was deceiving me. Of course, he almost certainly would have been were it not for his untimely demise.
If I was in Toto Wulf’s shoes I might be thinking about showing Rosberg the door. He’s a good driver, but he’s clearly not close to Hamilton. It’s only a matter of time before the atmosphere in that garage turns truly toxic, because Rosberg doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who will ever accept being #2 (not that he should; he’s good *enough *to win a championship of his own). That was pretty obvious in the post-race stuff yesterday; Hamilton tossed Rosberg his podium hat, and Rosberg threw it back at him. Then he sulked during the podium celebration.
Still, history shows us that two guys like Hamilton and Rosberg can’t coexist. Prost and Senna, Alonso and Hamilton, Vettel and Webber, etc. It doubtless would have been the same if Vettel had stayed at Red Bull for another year with Ricciardo. Button and Alonso are doing fine now, but it’s because they’re at the back of the grid. On the other hand, a Senna and a Berger or a Schumacher and a Barrichello can get along forever.
Rosberg will never be fired, of course, and I’m not sure there’s a good alternative out there who isn’t already under contract. Nico Hulkenberg would be perfect but he’s already re-signed with Force India. Same with Grosjean and Haas. Maybe that Magnusson guy that McLaren dropped?
In terms of drama and overtaking and what not it was the best race of the season. There have been other races with intense battles here and there but there was somebody making a move basically every lap of this race.
Yeah, Rosberg has too many of his own worries to consider letting Vettel past. Remember, Vettel is still four points ahead even with Rosberg’s second place.
The McLaren-Honda Senna drove in 1988 (MP4/4) was probably the best Formula One car of all time. What made Senna great was the championship he won in 1991, when he no longer had the best car (and arguably, the races he won in '93, when he didn’t even have a competitive car). Schumacher’s Ferraris were nearly as dominant as the 1988-89 McLaren (and he competed against a fairly weak field for most of the mid-to-late 1990s). Same goes for him; it was his Benetton championships that made him great (even if he had to cheat to win them).
Hamilton did basically the same thing in 2008, taking the title in a car that was clearly not as good as the Ferraris.
I didn’t watch the 2007 season but as I understood it Hamilton would have taken the title that year if not for the gearbox problem in Brazil.
ETA: Hamilton is unquestionably the greatest British driver of all time now, which is a pretty big deal. Clark probably would have won some more titles had he lived (my dad, who watched him race, says he was the best since Fangio) but that’s kind of speculative, unlike, say, Senna.
I think Clark has taken on something of a mythical aura over the years that makes it impossible for any real comparison to be made. It is notable however that he is consistently rated as perhaps the greatest by many who occupy that top table. sadly I never saw him race but when you have the likes of Fangio, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Hill, and many, many more, heaping plaudits on him. Well, I think we may have to bow to their first-hand experience.
So I think it is perhaps unfair to try and make a direct comparison. Suffice to say that Hamilton is, by any measure, *** a*** great even if*** the*** great is too much of a stretch.
Now what might make a difference is if Hamilton make a change to a new manufacturer in the future and wins yet another WDC. To do it across three teams is special indeed.